The fourteen men of South 3rds gathered, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes, in Peterborough for the early bird 10am push-back.

We looked the most likely to score in the opening half as we pushed the hosts back. There were two goalmouth scrambles, which included at least one goalline clearance. However, we were lacking cool heads in the final twenty-five, which wasn’t helping turn the territorial and possession advantage we had into clear cut openings.

Talk at half-time was about playing with more dynamism in support of the player in possession and also releasing the ball much earlier and more snappily. The team was listening: unfortunately though, it was the team wearing red rather than purple. It resulted in a nearly complete role reversal of the opening half, with Peterborough now the side camped on the attack. But, like us in the opening period, without really fashioning too many good scoring opportunities.

Our defence played well under this pressure, as we were maintaining our defensive structure despite the press. Mostly this was a good thing, though there were occasions when we were overly concerned with marking our men rather than taking the ball when it was available (see Lemon). Peterborough did manage more shorts than we had in our spell on top, partly through better thought processes in upgrading once they got into the circle and some given away in a dozy manner by our backline. One of these needed an important touch from Lino to send it narrowly wide. From memory this was the only genuine save the Italian Stallion had to make in the match.

Then, on fifty-nine minutes, Joe left to rush back to an appointment in Cambridge. Subsequent events would see his departure earn Joe votes for both Man and Lemon of the Match. This was because, with Joe gone, we scored twice to earn a win which had looked unlikely for most of the second period.

The first arrived with just over two minutes to play and stemmed from Chris turning the ball over from a Peterborough defender high up the field. Two immediate passes (finally!) saw the ball worked via Jason to Simon, unmarked on the left side of the circle. The goalie rushed out to meet the danger and went low to try and smother any shot, which gave Si opportunity to open the face of his stick and dink it over him and home.

So little time remained that keep-ball was surely the order of the day. However, making simple passes well to open players before being closed down was what we should have been doing anyway and playing like this created another clear opening following a move that ended Jason => Ollie => Alex. Alex’s initial shot was blocked but the rebound came back to him and this time he flicked it over the scrambling keeper. It was touch-and-go whether it was going in so Si made sure with an overhead reverse-stick scoop thingy from a range of, oooh, several inches. Which was immediately followed by the final whistle.

The good news continued after that, with other results meaning we have returned to the top of Division 5NW. We will be looking to maintain that next Saturday when we take on Louth.